


Louder Than Thunder

by knightlychika



Series: Louder Than Thunder [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Basically they're both silently pining, Hazardous Environment, Heavy Angst, M/M, Post Season 2, Really lowkey on the ship, Sacrifice, Some blood but nothing too gruesome, The Major Chara Death probably suggests that but still, fair warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 21:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10670715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightlychika/pseuds/knightlychika
Summary: When a rescue mission goes horribly wrong, an already perilous situation goes from bad to unspeakably worse - and he makes the decision no one should ever have to





	Louder Than Thunder

**Author's Note:**

> So this whole month is basically finals for me and apparently I needed to vent by being horrible to some babs I love (sorry boys)  
> Also, my first fic here on AO3! And of course it's an angst-fic oops

“Well, there she is.”

Lance brought his hands to rest on his hips as he and Keith looked over the edge of the canyon at which they stood. Directly below them, a ship was embedded in the canyon wall. At this distance it looked sturdy - well, as sturdy as something like this _could_ \- but Keith suspected it wouldn’t take much to change that.

The Red Paladin focused on his digital display from his helmet, and saw the still-flashing icon in the upper corner.

“Looks like the distress beacon is still active.” He glanced at the environmental data his helmet offered, “I hope they have a source of clean air, though, or they’re in trouble. This air is too toxic for anything not from here to survive long.”

“No kidding. Look,” Lance knelt and pointed to the ship that had brought them here. Keith followed Lance’s indication and saw where several holes peppered the hull of the vessel. Holes that were slowly getting bigger before their eyes.

They had to get in and check it out before the whole thing crumbled beneath them.

Keith looked to Lance as he prepared to activate his jetpack. “I’ll go see how bad it looks. If it’s stable I’ll comm you.” He stepped over the edge without waiting for a response, his jetpack activating to offer him a slow, controlled descent to the ship below.

How in the world was the ship not moving? Obviously it had to have slammed into the canyon wall at a high velocity to wedge itself into it like this - but such an impact also severely damaged the integrity of the thing. Basic physics: throw a tin can at a steel plate hard enough, and the can will crumple. And that didn’t even take into account this poisonous atmosphere.

Hopefully the Lions could handle it.

Keith maneuvered through a large hole in the exterior, and his boots touched down on relatively even ground. He found himself in what had once been an enclosed space, with screens and consoles lining the walls. Near the center of the room was a circular table-like thing, though nothing seemed to be working.

He heard a second jetpack approach, and a few seconds later the accompanying Paladin landed next to Keith.

Keith looked to Lance with a raised eyebrow. “What happened to waiting for me to give the all-clear?”

“I never said I would wait while you checked it out.” Lance spoke very matter-of-factly as he took a couple steps towards the center of the room.

“You didn’t say you _wouldn’t_.”

“Did you give me a _chance_ to say I wouldn’t?”

Keith averted his gaze. Well, he had a point - but Keith had purposefully not given him a chance to argue. Because then they would have gotten stuck arguing on who would go first, all while the toxic air ate away at everything - their whole reason for being here included - and they would just both go anyway.

“There’s no point in both of us getting stuck if something goes wrong,” Keith muttered as he followed the other Paladin into the space.

“Aawwwww, you were trying to protect me. That’s so sweet.” Lance turned to look at the Red Paladin, capturing Keith’s attention with those brilliant blue eyes.

Keith hated how his face started to burn the longer his eyes were locked with Lance’s. Hated it with a passion - because now the latter would feel so damned smug that he got a blush out of him. So Keith tore his eyes away again, then shook his head as he walked past the other Paladin. “Let’s just figure out where the survivors are and get out of here.”

He made his way to the line of monitors next to the large, cracked glass that spanned a good portion of the wall. If he had to hazard a guess, Keith would assume said glass was the main screen; similar to the one on the Castle which provided a view of whatever was on the outside. Once at the monitors, he found that the acid had already taken their toll on them; what screens weren’t shattered by an impact of some kind had been eaten through, with their circuits now showing.

He looked down at the control panels, but found a similar story. The entire line of glass was shattered, eaten by acid, or both - and what buttons he did see were broken.

“Too bad this isn’t a Galra ship, or you could read this gibberish.”

Keith rolled his eyes and released an involuntary, mildly annoyed sigh. “Just because I’m part Galra doesn’t mean I can read the language.”

“No no, I know. Just hypothetically.”

“Hypothetically, even if I could it wouldn’t matter. This definitely isn’t a Galra ship.” Keith huffed and turned towards his fellow Paladin. “Are you finding anything?”

“Just a bunch of weird alien writings on a datapad, and this flashing button.”

“Flashing button?” Keith’s brow creased as he approached the console at which Lance stood.

The latter pointed to the round console in front of him, “Yeah. Dunno what it does, though. A way to contact the survivors, maybe? Or the distress signal?”

Keith came to a stop just behind the other Paladin, and looked over his shoulder at the console. “Hm. Could be. It’s weird though, that’s the only thing getting power in this whole room.”

“Might’ve been jerry-rigged by the crew?”

“Maybe . . .”

Lance shrugged and glanced over his shoulder at Keith, “Couldn’t hurt to see what it does, could it?”

The Red Paladin looked to the flashing button and weighed their options. They hadn’t seen a ship like this before, so they had no idea how the thing worked. On one hand it could be dangerous, but on the other it could help them reach the survivors. And if it was the only thing receiving power, that had to have been intentional on the part of the crew.

Well, it wasn’t like they had a lot of other options.

Keith nodded, “Try it.” He turned away from the console to observe the rest of the space once more. Strange, that having energy diverted to that one console hadn’t overloaded it . . .

Lance pressed the button, and there was a hum of energy as it sounded like something trying to start up. The hum rose in volume, prompting Lance to take a step away form the console.

“I don’t like the sound of that . .”

Keith tilted his head, surprised by the familiarity of the sound. It was oddly similar to something he’d heard on Earth; the sound of an engine pushed to its max, just to the edge of catastrophic failure.

His eyes widened.

He turned back to Lance and surged towards him. “Lance, get b--!”

The console exploded, sending Lance flying backwards into Keith with concussive force. He released a pained and surprised cry as the two collided, before Keith realized they were tumbling towards the glass display. The now _shattered_ display - which left Keith staring wide-eyed at the opposite wall of the canyon.

The ship creaked and squealed around Keith as he desperately clawed at the ground, looking for anything that he could grab hold of as he slid across the floor at a terrifying clip.

Before he could do anything to stop it, he was in the open air and tumbling toward the canyon floor.

“Lance?” He looked around himself, trying to find the other Paladin. He caught sight of him directly below, but he was in freefall - his jetpack hadn’t been activated. “Lance!”

Keith angled himself towards the other and activated his own jetpack, his mental alarm bells ringing loud and clear. _Why isn’t he responding? Why isn’t he using his jetpack?! Even in armor, he can’t survive a freefall impact like that. If he isn’t already . . ._

__

__

_No, he’s fine. He’ll be fine, we both will._

The sickening sound of metal shearing above them forced Keith to look up at the ship. His stomach twisted as he watched the vessel tear away from the canyon wall and start its own plummet - directly towards the Paladins.

Keith redirected his attention to Lance and redoubled his efforts to reach him before the ship crushed them both.

_Just a little closer . . Come on, Lance. Wake up!_

Keith practically slammed into Lance’s limp form, and wrapped his arms around him before they could get separated again.

The Paladin’s eyes once more widened as he watched the canyon floor approach at a rapid pace. Keith angled himself upright so his jets would propel them away from the ground - or at the very least, slow their way-too-fast descent.

It had little effect, however, as Keith felt an awful _crack_ in his right ankle when his foot hit the ground with the full weight of two Paladins. He cried out and tumbled forward, his arms still tenaciously clinging to Lance even as they skidded across the ground.

As they came to a halt, Keith’s eyes clamped shut as he let out a long groan. His ankle hurt like all hell; it was probably broken. Not that he could check it at the moment.

He opened his eyes to find the ship still plummeting towards them, as though intent upon their demise.

Keith activated the shield from his wrist piece, and pushed himself onto his knees and free hand to protect Lance with his own body.

Several pieces of metal glanced off Keith’s back and shield, but the devastating weight he had braced for never came. Rather, the bulk of the ship fell around the Paladins, trapping them with rock and twisted metal. Still not good, but trapped was better than crushed.

After an ungodly long moment, the crunching and squeaking of the dying ship quieted as the wreckage settled. Finally, Keith could hear again; his own breath, rocks colliding with metal, wheezing.

Wheezing?

Keith looked down at the other Paladin and his blood ran cold.

Lance was still wearing his helmet, but the screen had been shattered. He was unconscious, yet his body was fighting furiously to take in air. A fight that was for naught; even with the blood and cuts all over his face, it was easy to see his skin turning pale from the lack of oxygen.

He would die in minutes here.

“Lance? Lance, can you hear me?” Keith’s shield deactivated as he put a hand on Lance’s shoulder and shook him, but got no response.

The Red Paladin looked up, hoping that there was some way out of here, but saw only sheared metal overhead. “Allura? . . . Allura, are you there?” He paused as he waited for an answer, but after a few seconds of silence it was clear he wouldn’t receive one.

He muttered a profanity under his breath as he looked to Lance, with the full understanding that he had to act fast, whatever he did.

Keith slipped Lance’s helmet off, then grimaced when he took in the full extent of his injuries. The blast had shredded his undersuit on the right side, breaking some of the armor too. Shrapnel had also done a number on his face, though there was no way to tell _how_ bad the damage was with all the blood.

He set the destroyed helmet aside and braced his hands on both sides of his own.

_Are you sure?_

Keith hesitated, for one of the first times in his life. _Was_ he sure about this? There was no guarantee of rescue anytime soon, and if help didn’t come then this would literally be the last thing he would do with his life. He would die here, lost on a nameless planet, with no one to remember him.

His brow furrowed as his grip on his helmet tightened.

Keith had already made his decision. He lost Shiro - twice. He’d be damned if he’d let someone else he cared about slip away.

He took a deep breath, held it, then pulled his helmet off.

Once it was free, he turned it around before slipping it over Lance’s head, careful to avoid the cuts on his face and neck. Once it was in place a small symbol appeared in the corner of the display, indicating that it made a complete seal with Lance’s suit.

Keith nodded, in place of sighing, and turned his focus to Lance’s chest and right arm. There wasn’t much he could do in the way to fix it, except maybe to hold pressure on it.

He braced his hands over the largest of the wounds on Lance’s upper arm, in the vain hope that he could stop the bleeding before help came. He watched Lance’s chest rise and fall, and took some comfort from the simple, repetitive motion.

Or, what comfort he could. His heart was already pounding, begging him for another breath.

The wreckage started to shake, once more raining small bits of metal and rock down on the Paladins. Keith once more activated his shield and held it above himself and Lance.

Keith turned his gaze from the falling debris to Lance, still unconscious in front of him, and a small, sad smile crossed his lips.

This hadn’t been how he expected to die. In a fiery blaze maybe, or in an intense battle. But on a rescue mission? Like this? The thought had never crossed his mind that he would die in someone else’s place.

But if it meant that the team didn’t lose their sharpshooter, and if it meant that Lance could go home and see his family again, could see the sunset he told Keith about again, then it wasn’t the worst way to go.

Even if Keith had wanted to see it with him.  
\------------------------------  
Lance awoke with a vicious coughing fit, the kind he knew all too well from beach mishaps. The kind that resulted from something _wrong_ being in one’s lungs, with the body responding in painful, barking coughs that wracked one’s whole body.

He tried to roll over as the fit neared its end, to relieve the resulting pain in his side, but a weight on his right and an arm draped across his chest kept him from doing so. Confused, Lance traced the arm to its owner and found an unconscious Keith lying facedown, practically on top of Lance’s side.

Lance brought his left arm across his body to Keith’s shoulder and shook it. “Keith? Hey.”

The Red Paladin slowly turned his head to face Lance, and gave him a weak smile that made Lance’s stomach churn. “Y . . ou’re ok . . ay . . .” His voice was even weaker than the smile, but he seemed relieved as he looked at Lance.

The latter couldn’t say the same. His brows arched in concern as he studied Keith’s hauntingly pale face, and the blue tinge of his lips. Not to mention Lance had never seen him this tired, not even after difficult missions.

Then he remembered this planet’s toxic atmosphere.

“Keith, where’s your helmet?” Lance’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet, as he feared the answer. Had it been damaged? Blown off? They had to find it, wherever it was - or he’d . . .

Keith maintained that same stupidly calm smile as he raised his hand off Lance’s chest, then tapped the blue display of the helmet Lance was wearing. His hand dropped again.

“What?” He stared at Keith confused for a moment, before it hit him. His eyes suddenly widened in horror. “Keith, no! You need it or--!”

“You n . . needed it m . . ore.”

“Well now _you_ need it.” Lance rose his left hand to the helmet and tried to find somewhere to get a grip on it, but it was hard with just the one hand. Plus whenever he did find a hold, there was something slick that would make a grip impossible. Unfortunately, even if his other hand _wasn’t_ pinned by Keith, his right arm hurt so much that he wasn’t even sure he would be able to use it.

He grunted with each failed effort to remove the thing, growing more distraught and desperate with each attempt.

“Lance . . .” Keith closed his eyes and took in a soft but raspy breath. “Won’t h . . elp now . . .”

Tears welled in the Blue Paladin’s eyes as he stared at the other. This wasn’t the Keith he knew. Keith was a fighter, never gave up on a situation, no matter how stupid or hopeless it was. He practically stared death in the face and dared it to do its worst. He was impulsive and threw common sense to the wind - he didn’t just lay down and die.

Then . . . giving his helmet, literally the one thing keeping him alive, to someone else was definitely impulsive.

It broke Lance’s heart to watch this happen. To watch someone who was usually one of the more lively members of the team have that life slowly stolen from them, one poisoned breath at a time.

“Dammit,” he muttered and lowered his head, causing the dam to break. Tears streaked down his face, stinging his fresh wounds.

Lance leaned towards Keith, and touched foreheads with him - or, as best he could with the helmet in the way. “I’m so sorry,” he sobbed as he laid his left arm across Keith’s chest - the closest he could come to holding him.

“Don’t be . . .” Keith took another shaky breath, even weaker than before, “Not y . . our fault.”

But it was Lance’s fault. If he had stopped and thought for two seconds “oh, I wonder why this _one_ button is lit up in this whole quiznaking ship” then this whole thing could have been avoided. If he had his shield up, his own helmet wouldn’t have gotten damaged. If he’d taken just two more steps away from the console, he would’ve been fine.

But he hadn’t done any of that, and Keith was going to pay for his mistake.

“What can I do?” Lance whispered, his throat too thick with emotion to do much else.

“Tell me a . . about your f . family.”

Lance swallowed hard as his eyes went to the shambles of metal above them. His family . . he’d thought talking about them had been a sore spot with Keith, given his own family situation. Or that it just annoyed him.

But if he really wanted to hear it, Lance could oblige his l . . . his last wish.

“My . . my sister Rita hates crowds, usually finds somewhere to hide out of the way at parties. She and Pidge would get along great. Mom makes the best garlic knots in the world - every party we host they’re in high demand.”

Oh, those garlic knots. Long had he thought of the party his family would throw when Voltron made it back to Earth, of how they would listen in awe to the stories of the team’s adventures. About the things that Lance had accomplished that would have them beaming with pride. And how “Keith, that stupid show-off with the stupid mullet” had become more than a rival - more than just a teammate even.

Lance’s eyes squeezed shut as the bitter tears continued to roll down his face in constant streams. “They would have loved you.”

“Hmm.” Keith closed his eyes, “What el . . se?”

Lance took a deep breath, then immediately felt like being sick when he realized that Keith couldn’t do the same.

“What else? Well, there’s Hunk, my brother-from-another-mother. Don’t make him mad if he’s in the kitchen - he has creative ways of making you sorry. Coran is like, that favorite uncle who spoils you rotten but keeps your head on straight so it balances out.”

He took a shaky breath, “And then there’s Keith, who does things like navigate asteroid belts at top speed, and fights the dude who’s evil incarnate alone and freaking survives. Then he goes and does stupid things like . . . like sacrifices himself.”

Lance broke down again, as his mind rewound through all the times he could have told Keith how much he appreciated his company, or told him how much he admired him, and just . . . didn’t. Whether it was pride or embarrassment or whatever else, Lance wasn’t sure - but he _did_ know that all those moments would haunt him now.

“It’s not fair, Keith.” Lance shook his head, still pressed against Keith’s. “You’re the one Shiro chose to lead us. You’re his right hand man. You deserve better than this - better than me.”

“Mm.”

“I’m sorry I never told you before, but--”

The roar of a Lion echoed through the space, and Lance looked to the faux-ceiling in disbelief. Another roar filled the air, this time in chorus with another.

His face lit up as he looked down to Keith eagerly, “Keith! Keith, do you hear that? Our Lions are gonna get us out!”

Keith didn’t respond.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm like 10% sorry for this. 13% maybe  
> There's a second part for this I started drafting out but haven't done a whole lot with it yet. Please let me know if ya want to see it  
> Thank you so much for reading this! Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated <3  
> You can also find me on Tumblr as [knightlychika](http://knightlychika.tumblr.com/%22) (feel free to come scream at me, I love talking with other fans)


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